Anti-narcotics forces seized nearly 3 tons of opium and morphine after a gun battle with drug traffickers in southwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border, a Pakistani official said. Three suspects, all Pakistanis with assault rifles, were arrested in the raid late Thursday in Brahamcha, a village in Chagai district, about 275 kilometers (170 miles) southwest of Quetta.

Captain Ali Raza, who led the Anti-Narcotics Force raid, said they seized 1,720 kilograms (3,784 pounds) of opium and 1,120 kilograms (2469 pounds) of morphine and confiscated the landcruiser used to transport the drugs.

"The drugs were brought from Helmand province in southern Afghanistan for further smuggling to Europe via Iran," Raza said.

Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan is a key smuggling route for drugs produced in neighboring Afghanistan, source of about 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw material of heroin, reports the AP.